Friday, September 16, 2011

I was recently emailed by a young lady who has set up her own charitable endeavour and has hit some pretty substantial roadblocks. She was unsure where to go from here and was after some advice.

My first piece of advice: EVERY endeavour hits roadblocks.

Some prime examples:

•the Frisbee took 9 years to “take off” (excuse the pun) – invented in 1948 it wasn’t a hit till 1957

•Velcro inventor and engineer George de Mestral spent a decade perfecting his invention before he made a sale

•Karl Elsener invented something you probably have in your home today – a Swiss army knife – but it took him 13 years to find a market for his product and he was bailed out by friends and family several times over

•In my own life even just looking at one area – financing - I’ve been:

◦Knocked back for finance on my first business

◦Knocked back for finance on my first investment

◦Knocked back by a potential investor

It’s note the presence of the road block that’s the issue, it’s what how you choose to address it. Bruce Lee speaks about being “like water” if water encounters an obstacle it just flows around it.

How can you flow? How can you adapt? What questions do you need to ask yourself to move around your road block?

Good luck to Olivia in finding your way around/over/through your road block!